Victoria General Hospital flood cancels, postpones surgeries others

The Nova Scotia Health Authority says a leak on the third floor of the Victoria General hospital in Halifax has been located and repaired.

The leak caused a “significant” flood at the hospital Monday morning, prompting all surgeries to be postponed.

The leaking pipe was discovered at 5 a.m. Monday, behind a wall in the building’s third floor. Nothing was damaged on that floor, but water leaked to the second floor in the eye surgery area.

“What was damaged was a supply room. Those are sterile supplies (kept there) and they had to be moved to a sterile room. The only place available was an operating room in the eye unit,” Nova Scotia Health Authority spokesman Everton McLean said.

“That means we expect that one room will be out of operation.”

Surgeries in three other eye operating rooms will go ahead, he said, although he added officials are looking for other solutions so the fourth room can be used for surgery as soon as possible.

The supply room “is going to have to be dried and restored,” McLean said.

But he added that the flooding is contained to just one area, so damage is not as extensive as it was during the flooding in September when several floors were damaged by a leaking pipe.

“It is much more contained than the previous flood, which is positive,” he said. “Whenever we bump surgeries we know the impact on patients is a difficult one.”

Just last week, an intensive care unit on the Centennial Building’s third floor was reopened to patients after the renovations needed to repair severe damage from September’s flood.

Agencies/Canadajournal